The exorcism of faer

• Michael Brown
• 10 Aug, 2026 14:07
• • Books

The Exorcism of Faeries (Morbid Realities, #1) Book Review and Summary

Author: J.L. VampaPage Count: UnknownPublication Date: Expected publication 2026-02-26 APL As a father who has spent countless hours holding the hand of a child learning how to reclaim their fractured sense of safety after trauma, I look at dark academia through a very specific lens. And The Exorcism of Faeries by J.L. Vampa—slated for early 2026—hits a nerve. Why? Because true recovery requires staring directly into the rot, not pretending it isn't there. The Pathology of Obsession The synopsis introduces us to Atta Morrow, a Trinity College botany grad student chasing a horrific plague that literally roots beneath human skin. Yet what fascinates me isn't the body horror—it's the psychology of relentless pursuit. When trauma shatters a young person's world, their coping mechanism often manifests as hyper-fixation. Atta's covert research is an obsession. But is it a quest for truth, or is it an avoidance strategy? And then we have Professor Sonder Murdoch. Morbid anatomy. Infamous. Brilliant. A dangerous temptation. It's the classic institutional power dynamic, wrapped in formaldehyde and folklore. But beneath the seductive gothic window dressing, what story are we actually being told about mentorship? When a young person seeks validation from a volatile, older authority figure, they are often unconsciously trying to rewrite an old script of emotional abandonment. Vampa—alongside comparative peers like Leigh Bardugo in Ninth House or Harper Woods—is leaning heavily into this trope. Will the narrative reward this dependency, or will it deconstruct it? As a parent, I watch kids struggle every day to untangle their self-worth from the approval of impenetrable mentors. Secrets Older Than Science Folklore always demands a blood sacrifice. The synopsis vaguely hints that Atta and Murdoch must confront ancient secrets before the city consumes them. Admittedly, the blurb suffers from standard genre vagueness—we get plenty of moody atmosphere, but very little concrete mechanics about how this plague actually functions or why a botanist and an anatomy professor are uniquely qualified to stop it. Yet, the thematic core remains potent. Recovery demands integration of the shadow. You cannot excise the parts of yourself—or your history—that you deem monstrous. You have to look at them. Vampa's pairing of botany (life, cultivation, growth) with morbid anatomy (decay, death, dissection) is a brilliant symbolic dichotomy. Growth requires death. Healing requires rupture. My bold prediction? This book will either brilliantly subvert the toxic professor-student romance dynamic into a mutual excavation of shared trauma, or it will lean too hard into lazy dark academia aesthetics. I am betting on the former. Vampa has the setup for a sharp exploration of how youth desperately attempts to dissect and control the chaotic plagues handed down by older generations. Excuse me for a second. I just burned my tongue on hot tea.